What is the Certified Leadership Development Specialist?

The Certified Leadership Development Specialist is a globally recognised professional certification by the Global Leadership Institute (GLI), designed to equip professionals with advanced competencies in Leadership & Management.

How long does this certification take?

The programme is 12 Weeks and can be completed at your own pace through our self-paced online option, or alongside live virtual sessions.

Is this certification globally recognised?

Yes. GLI certifications are internationally recognised and carry CPD credits, making them valuable for career advancement worldwide.

What level is this certification?

This is a Advanced Level certification, suitable for professionals with relevant experience or background in the field.

You can enrol by emailing info@certifications.ac, contacting us via WhatsApp at +254 722 223 084, or filling the enrolment form below.

Certified Leadership Development Specialist in Australia

Course Curriculum

Programme Modules

Click any module to explore the detailed curriculum topics included in this certification.

Foundations and Strategic Context of Certified Leadership Development Specialist

Certified Leadership Development Specialist: industry context, trends and professional standards
Theories and models of leadership and management
The manager's roles, responsibilities and mindset
Leadership versus management and when each is needed
Situational and adaptive leadership
Values, purpose and authentic leadership
The organisational context and operating environment
Self-awareness and the leader's identity
Building credibility and executive presence
Ethics and responsible leadership
Personal leadership development planning

Performance and Difficult Conversations

Managing performance day to day
Difficult conversations and managerial courage
Building and leading a team
Managing complexity and ambiguity
Strategic leadership at scale
Long-term value creation
Stakeholder mapping and analysis
Building strategic relationships and coalitions
Influencing without authority
Negotiation strategy and tactics
Managing conflict constructively
Board and investor engagement
Public speaking and thought leadership
Analytical techniques and bias
Reputation and personal brand

Decisions, Budgets and Resources

Decision making for managers
Managing budgets and resources
Operational planning and workflow management
Rational and intuitive decision-making
Preparing financial statements
Data-informed and evidence-based decisions
Prioritisation and resource allocation
Operational planning and execution discipline
Risk assessment and judgement
Managing trade-offs and dilemmas
Decision rights and governance
Integrated and sustainability reporting
Stakeholder management and relationships
Managing up, down and across
Developing talent and succession

Managing Upward and Developing

Managing upward and across
Developing your own management practice
Developing strategic capability in others
Regulatory awareness and compliance
Professional standards and continuing development
Leadership impact and organisational health metrics
Balanced scorecard and KPI frameworks
360-degree feedback and leadership assessment
Benchmarking and best-practice adoption
Continuous improvement and learning organisations
Productivity and effectiveness measurement
Team and engagement metrics
Reporting quality and governance
Management accounts and dashboards
Capstone scoping: a real leadership challenge

From Doing to Managing

The transition from doing to managing
Delegation and appropriate autonomy
Developing your own management practice
Ethical leadership and integrity
Values-based decision-making
Corporate governance and accountability
Conflicts of interest and fairness
Diversity, inclusion and inclusive leadership
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
Forecasting and planning
Transparency and stakeholder trust
Situation analysis and diagnosis
Designing a strategic or change intervention
Business case and impact analysis
Implementation and stakeholder plan

Delegation and Autonomy

Delegation and appropriate autonomy
Building and leading a team
Managing performance day to day
Prioritisation and managing competing demands
Running meetings that produce decisions
Strategic alignment across an organisation
Organisational design as a strategic choice
Power, coalitions and organisational politics
Leading under ambiguity and complexity
Strategic learning and the adaptive organisation
Culture as a strategic asset
Leading strategic change
The executive transition: from function to enterprise
Setting and communicating strategic direction
Leading through other leaders

Prioritisation and Focus

Prioritisation and managing competing demands
Running meetings that produce decisions
Operational planning and workflow management
Dashboards, metrics and management information
Cybersecurity and information governance for leaders
Innovation platforms and experimentation
Technology strategy and investment
Operational planning and resource management
Financial acumen: budgets, P&L and cash
Cost management and value creation
Performance management systems and KPIs
Project and programme oversight
Managing risk and controls
Balancing short-term delivery and long-term value
Innovation management and creative problem-solving

Legal and Policy

Data visualisation for finance
Legal duties and compliance
Contractor safety management
Regulatory and privacy requirements
Communicating financial results
Accounting concepts, principles and the regulatory landscape
Managing audit and regulator relationships
Regulatory compliance and professional duty
Regulatory reporting and disclosure
Financial regulation and prudential supervision
Regulatory compliance and audits
Legal and ethical protection
Working with police, regulators and the justice system
Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches
Attachment and developmental theory

Supply and Procurement

The procurement cycle and operating models
Procurement’s contribution to organisational strategy
Public versus private procurement
Supply markets and the enabling environment
Digital procurement and the future of the profession
Sustainable procurement principles and standards
Fair trade and responsible supply
Procurement and asset management under donor rules
Vendor, venue and supplier contracting for events
Water supply systems: sources, treatment and distribution
Professional roles, boundaries and settings
Ethical principles and codes of practice
Procurement and stock management for health commodities
Conflicts of interest and procurement ethics
Procurement and contract value

Ethics and Standards

Executive ethics and the leader’s shadow
Marketing and sales ethics
Brand safety and responsible marketing
Sustainability and responsible marketing
Professional roles, ethics and standards for agricultural practitioners
Managing boundaries and dual relationships
Peer support and consultation
Corporate social responsibility and community impact
Ethics and fair customer treatment
Professional ethics in customer service
Responsible and ethical service
Corporate social responsibility communications
Ethics and professional standards in finance
Professional ethics and codes (IFAC, ACCA, CIMA)
Sustainability and responsible finance

Learning and Knowledge

Growth mindset and continuous learning
Knowledge management and capability building
Monitoring, evaluation and learning for accountability
Designing and facilitating groups
Lessons learned and knowledge management
Facilitation and workshops
Facilitation, training and public presentation skills
Sustaining ethical, effective practice
Group dynamics, facilitation and community mobilisation
Complaint data and learning
Training and capability building
Training needs analysis and learning strategy
Facilitation, coaching and mentoring
Training needs analysis
Cognitive load and learning science

Diversity and Global Practice

Gender, youth and social inclusion in agricultural development
Key global frameworks: FAO, GlobalG.A.P., SDGs and national strategies
Financial inclusion and agency banking
Digital accessibility and inclusion
Financial inclusion strategy
Transfer pricing and international tax
Financial inclusion and serving underbanked markets
Nomination, succession and diversity
The business case for diversity and inclusion
Team diversity and inclusion
Cross-cultural communication
Managing virtual and cross-cultural teams
Global sourcing and international trade
International and cross-border tax
Ethical frameworks and codes of practice

Sustainability

Stakeholder capitalism and ESG
Environmental legal compliance
Sustainability and climate responsibility
Environmental monitoring and reporting
Continuous environmental improvement
Integration with quality and environment
Sustainability and responsible sourcing
Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
Sustainability reporting and disclosure
Embedding sustainability in sourcing
Mine water, tailings and environmental management
Record-keeping and data protection
Sustainability and environmental duty
Environmental management systems (ISO 14001)
Social media management: platforms, communities and algorithms

Leadership and Management

Data literacy and analytics for leaders
Change leadership models (Kotter, ADKAR, Lewin)
Succession and the leadership pipeline
Time management and personal productivity
Reflective practice and self-leadership
Risk management and contingencies
Digital leadership and business transformation
Performance management in service
Handling escalations as a leader
Team leadership in customer service
Teller operations, cash handling and vault management
Sales performance and pipeline management
Liquidity and funding management
Investment portfolio management
Operational risk management

People and Development

Managing performance through coaching
Coaching challenging situations
Measuring coaching impact
Managing distributed and digital teams
Building and running a top team
Message development and testing
Supplier development and innovation
Continuing professional development
Career pathways and professional development
Measuring development impact
Feedback and developmental conversations
Complaints, accountability and fitness to practise
Lessons learned and development
Wellbeing and resilience coaching
Measuring coaching outcomes

Performance Management

Sustaining high performance over time
Funnel, pipeline and conversion metrics
Customer and brand health metrics
Dashboards and performance reporting
Legal responsibilities and professional bodies
Capacity and performance management
Setting objectives, indicators and targets
Yield, productivity and profitability metrics
Linking CX to business performance
Service KPIs: CSAT, NPS, CES, SLAs
Net Promoter Score and satisfaction metrics
Managing schedule and budget performance
Agile metrics and velocity
Setting objectives and marketing KPIs
Marketing and sales KPIs and dashboards

Operations

Organisational design and operating models
Service levels and quality
Process and control documentation
Quality assurance of audit
Competitive bidding processes
Incident response process
Business process mapping
The HR function: roles, operating models and value creation
Quality assurance and standards
Climate-smart agriculture: productivity, adaptation, mitigation
Continuous improvement of finance processes
Industrial utilities, energy and process safety interfaces
Client feedback and satisfaction
Service quality and the passenger experience in transport
Mineral processing and beneficiation

Financial Management

Cost and price analysis
Investigation practice and evidence handling
Income capitalisation and investment value
NGO financial management and budget-versus-actual discipline
Claims investigation and fraud indicators
Vehicle financing, insurance and total cost of ownership conversations
Costing production: standard costs, variances and the true cost of scrap
Non-revenue water, metering and cost recovery
Evidence-based improvement
Driving effective, ethical outcomes
Health financing: budgets, insurance and out-of-pocket realities
Financial reporting frameworks (IFRS/GAAP)
Interpreting financial statements
Budget vs actual and variance
Cost and profitability analysis

Communication

Professional presentation and defence
The strategic narrative
Board and executive financial reporting
Investor relations and market communication
Presenting financial information clearly
Management reporting and decision support
Board reporting and information flows
Governance of ESG and reporting
Communicating and reporting to leadership
Management and board reporting
Safety communication and campaigns
Crisis communications
Stakeholder communications
Ethics in communications
Communications strategy and planning

Decision Making

Prioritisation and focus
Executive time, attention and decision cadence
Strategic decision-making under uncertainty
Structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis
Decision support and insight
Writing advisory reports that drive decisions
Issue and problem management
Backlogs, user stories and prioritisation
Escalation and decision-making
Portfolio management and prioritisation
Decision-making and problem solving
Value addition and processing decisions
Psychoeducation and workshops
Data-driven decision support and analytics
Prioritising experience investments

Change

Leading technology adoption and change
Leading large-scale transformation
Sustaining change and embedding new behaviours
Measuring change and transformation impact
Organisational resilience and adaptive strategy
Working with organisations on wellbeing
Designing an intervention or programme
Resilience, wellbeing and stress management
Digital transformation and IT strategy
Variations, claims and delay: managing change on site
Change talk and readiness
Digital and market transformation
Managing growth, risk and resilience
Behaviour change and adoption of innovations
Customer experience transformation

Stakeholders and Influence

Integrity, confidentiality and conflicts
Relationship management and cross-selling
Wealth, SME and corporate relationships
Stakeholder mapping and engagement
Stakeholders and users of financial information
Stakeholder mapping for the finance function
Business partnering and influencing
Negotiation with banks, investors and suppliers
Confidentiality and conflicts of interest
Stakeholders, agency and accountability
Trends: ESG, transparency and stakeholder capitalism
Conflict resolution and negotiation
Conflicts of interest and transparency
Commercial negotiation and value capture
Influencer and affiliate marketing

Risk and Governance

Board, governance and C-suite dynamics
Professional case study and presentation
Working with a board and governance
In-process quality control and inspection
Ground control and strata management
Duty of care and risk management
Managing risk and difficult cases
Ethical, risk and feasibility considerations
Risk assessment and safety planning
Project governance and assurance
Project governance frameworks
NGO governance, boards and registration
How insurance works: risk pooling and the value chain
Underwriting principles and risk selection
Bancassurance and digital insurance models

Strategic Context

Growth strategy: organic, M&A and partnerships
Business model and market innovation
Corporate strategy and portfolio choices
Designing a marketing or sales strategy
Marketing strategy and the mix
Brand strategy, identity and equity
Pricing strategy
Digital marketing strategy
Key account management strategy
Competitive and market intelligence
Translating insight into strategy
Business case and strategic alignment
Stakeholder engagement strategy
Strategic alignment of investments
Competitive analysis and differentiation

Evidence and Data

Evidence-based practice
Data migration and cleansing
Financial storytelling and data visualisation
Audit evidence, sampling and professional scepticism
Attrition, engagement and productivity analytics
Data ethics, privacy and responsible analytics
Data collection and analytics
Predictive safety analytics
Data quality and master data management
Comparable sales analysis and market evidence
Health records, data and confidentiality
Data privacy and consent
Influencing and presenting insights
Data ethics and customer privacy
Data protection and customer privacy

Technology

CRM systems and customer data
Customer service technology stack
Technology selection and integration
Emerging service technologies
Digital, mobile and internet banking
The banking system, intermediation and financial markets
Digital disruption and the future of banking
Branch-to-digital migration
Digital banking platforms and APIs
Payment technology and switches
Automation, RPA and straight-through processing
Process improvement and automation
Professional ethics in technology
Risk assessment and safe systems of work
Performance management systems and cycles

Projects and Delivery

Development banking and project finance
Risk-based audit planning
Tender planning and documentation
Continuous improvement of delivery
Voice, communication and delivery
Continuous improvement of programmes
Project management principles and lifecycle
Risk management planning
Leading finance projects and change
Cost reduction and efficiency programmes
Tax planning, avoidance and evasion distinguished
Goal setting and contracting
Treatment planning and review
Media planning and buying
Telehealth and digital care delivery

People Administration

Communicating risk to the workforce
Workforce and shift management in retail
Workforce management and scheduling
Loyalty programmes and rewards
Workforce planning and scheduling
Employee experience and engagement
Customer and employee satisfaction
Employee engagement models and drivers
The employee lifecycle and HR value chain
Strategic workforce planning and demand forecasting
Reward strategy and total reward frameworks
Linking performance to reward and consequence
Digital HR and the employee experience platform
Data protection and employee privacy
Belonging, culture and employee resource groups

Culture and Engagement

Organisational culture and behaviour change
Leading across cultures and geographies
Habit change and behaviour design
Strengths, flow and engagement
Meaning, purpose and values
Building trust and engagement
Motivation and engagement
Advocacy and policy engagement
Managing complexity and comorbidity
Workplace and organisational contexts
Goal setting and action planning
Service culture and brand promise
Building a customer-centric culture
Proactive engagement and success
Win-back and re-engagement

Customers and Market

The customer experience (CX) discipline
Innovation in service delivery
Governance of service standards
Continuous improvement in service
Driving measurable service improvement
Customer service and CX strategy
Designing voice-of-customer programmes
Aligning service to brand and business
Sustaining strategic customer focus
Customer and journey analysis
Designing a service or experience improvement
Vehicle specifications, trims and options in customer language
Customer retention in the vehicle ownership cycle
Tariffs, regulation and the economics of essential services
Customer loyalty and repeat purchase in retail

Certified Leadership Development Specialist

Certified Leadership Development Specialist

Certification at a Glance

Who Should Enrol?

Everything Included in Your Enrolment

Why This Certification Matters for Your Career

Core Competencies You Will Develop

Programme Modules

What You Will Achieve

How to Get Certified

Common Questions

What Our Alumni Say

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